VoIP service providers often provide their subscribers the ability to connect to network services from anywhere in the world via broadband IP access. For a variety of reasons, a subscriber sometimes desires to have a telephone number that is not within the local calling area of their service address. For example, a New Jersey resident can obtain a telephone number with an area code for California. VoIP service providers find it challenging to provide these out of area subscribers with the same level of safety associated with E911 services that depend on the service address and the phone number of a subscriber to belong to the same local calling area. E911 is an emergency response service that allows emergency personnel at a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) to respond to the emergency call and receive the location of a caller placing the emergency call and the calling party phone number. A PSAP is an emergency response center that is responsible for answering E911 calls for emergency assistance from police, fire and ambulance services.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for supporting out of area phone number for emergency, e.g., E911, services in a packet network, e.g., a VoIP network.